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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Options for the Remaining 2012 Free Agents

Thanks to mlbtr.com, a comprehensive list of the year's remaining free agents is always available. A few weeks ago, after the Mariners gave major league deals to Hong-Chih Kuo and Shawn Camp, I was intrigued enough to want to try my hand at predicting where and for how much the remaining free agents will sign. Here's a whirl at it:

Catchers

Ramon Castro (36) - minor league deal with FLA, reuniting with a former team, manager, and pitcher whose perfect game he caught

Jason Kendall (38) - reportedly injured for the entirety of the 2012 season

Ivan Rodriguez (40) - minor league deal with MIN; if unable to beat Drew Butera for the roster's third catcher spot, he'll at least get to spend camp with his son, Dereck Rodriguez, who's an outfielder in the organization

Jason Varitek (40) - retirement; if the Red Sox won't have you back, please at least walk out of baseball as one, it just seems right, as Jorge Posada understood

Derrek Lee (36) - major league deal with MIL @ 1 yr/$2.5m; Lee becomes a platoon partner with Mat Gamel or hopefully more for the Brew Crew, replacing out-of-options Frankie De La Cruz or Tim Dillard on the roster

Xavier Nady (33) - minor league deal with SF, providing right-handed depth at 1B and the corner outfield positions, since the only other current roster option is Brett Pill, who doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence

Second basemen

Felipe Lopez (32) - minor league deal with MIL, an organization with whom Lopez already has some familiarity with and can add some AAA depth to

Julio Lugo (36) - minor league deal with CLE; come on, the Tribe has already handed out over twenty invites to Spring Training, you don't think they can hammer out one more?

Aaron Miles (35) - major league deal with PHI @ 1 yr/$.625m; Miles played well enough in 2011 to earn a big league deal, no matter how cheap it is, and he'll provide insurance in case Michael Martinez fails to impress, and a DFA of C Eric Kratz seems worth it

Shortstops

Edgar Renteria (35) - minor league deal with CIN, becoming potentially valuable injury insurance; with Miguel Cairo and Wilson Valdez aboard, Paul Janish is seemingly out of the Red's plans and Chris Valaika is the only projected AAA depth currently on the team's 40-man roster

Eric Chavez (34) - major league deal with NYY @ 1 yr/$1.5m; I know GM Brian Cashman is making a show of being unable to stretch his mammoth budget to afford Raul Ibanez and Chavez at million-dollar deals, but come on, Chavez's play last year does not deserve a pay-cut, so the Yankees will find a way at the end of the day to field the best team they can, no matter the cost, plus a spot and cash for Chavez would open up with this proposed trade

Wes Helms (36) - minor league deal with ATL, because Helms is too classy a veteran to have to retire with the season's end he had last year; the Marlins villainized him and his return to Atlanta to help Fredi Gonzalez was cut short by injury, so let's give him one more chance

Left fielders

Johnny Damon (37) - major league deal with CHC @ 1yr/$2.5m, with more analysis here; not many places make sense but I guess Damon could serve a mediocre one-year stint here, perhaps replacing Adrian Cardenas on the 40-man

Jay Gibbons (35) - minor league deal with ATL; I wouldn't say Atlanta's outfield has "depth" right now by any means, though I'm not sure a Gibbons signing would provide any more of that either

Ibanez (40) - major league deal with NYY @ 1 yr/$1.25m; this would require Ibanez to sign for a hair over one-tenth of his 2011 salary, but for a chance to win I think both sides would want to do this, even if it meant losing the Rule V rights to Cesar Cabral or Brad Meyers to open a roster spot

Hideki Matsui (38) - minor league deal with SEA, forming an all-Asian squad of Matsui, Hisashi Iwakuma, Kuo, Chih-Hsien Chiang, Ichiro, and Munenori Kawasaki to take to Japan in March to face the A's as well as potentially adding a little pop to a punchless lineup

Marcus Thames (35) - minor league deal with DET, providing depth in the corner OF and DH spots and at 1B; there would be a need if a Clete Thomas trade were to happen, since the Tigers would have six big-league outfielders on their 40-man, two of which (Ryan Raburn and Don Kelly) figure to see significant time in the infield

Right fielders

J.D. Drew (36) - minor league deal with ARI, having a chance to earn a spot on a team with his brother, Stephen Drew; he might be considered disinterested and detached, but a guy with his natural abilities could still improve most teams

Magglio Ordonez (38) - minor league deal with DET, this going along with the Thames argument and for the sake of familiarity and Jim Leyland sentiment

Ramirez (40) - minor league deal with OAK; I'm more curious of a Ramirez signing with the A's than I was with his deal with Tampa, plus I'm actually thinking such a deal brings decent value to Oakland

Starting pitchers

Kyle Davies (28) - minor league deal with TOR; they gave him a shot at the end of last season, why not again

Doug Davis (36) - minor league deal with CHW; like Davies, Davis got a shot with this team's top affiliate last year and actually provided nine good starts for them

Rich Harden (30) - reportedly injured for the entirety of the 2012 season, which is too bad, his K/9 rate makes him an intriguing bullpen arm as it always has

Scott Kazmir (28) - minor league deal with NYM, allowing him to reunite with the team that traded him as a top prospect for a few middling seasons of Victor Freaking Zambrano

Sergio Mitre (31) - minor league deal with OAK, giving them some AAA long relief or starting depth

Mark Prior (31) - minor league deal with MIN; his propensity to injury requires this to be a cheap deal, but wouldn't it be interesting for Prior to give his last shot at a comeback with the only team that passed on him in the draft (taking a lot of flack for drafting Joe Mauer instead...)

Roy Oswalt (34) - major league deal with CIN @ 1 yr/$7.5m; isn't this a fair deal for both sides, allowing Oswalt to pitch (in an important role) for a contender and the Reds a Hall-of-Fame calibar pitcher as they go all in for the year, thus filling out their roster while still keeping their payroll under $89m and only a reasonable $8m more than ownership has ever spent on a payroll there

Ben Sheets (33) - reportedly injured for the entirety of the 2012 season

Rick VandenHurk (27) - minor league deal with OAK, giving them some

Javier Vazquez (35) - retirement; so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu...and you ended on a good year too

Tim Wakefield (45) - retirement; while knuckleballers can pitch forever, Wakefield is no longer wanted by his long-time Boston club, plus he has some pretty numbers he can hang his Red Sox hat on as he exits: a 200-180 record, 1.35 WHIP, 6.0 K/9 rate, and an All-Star selection

Brandon Webb (33) - minor league deal with CIN; coming cheap, Webb makes sense financially for the Reds, while they make sense geographically and competitively for him, since Cincinnati is close to Webb's Kentucky home and is a contending team he'd like to pitch for (if that ever happens again)

Chris Young (33) - minor league deal with NYM, returning to provide his team with four stellar starts or a third straight year; if only he could wait to get injured in October, not that the Mets will be playing then

Right-handed relievers

David Aardsma (29) - minor league deal with DET; looking at the 40-man roster and knowing Al Alburquerque is injured, I can't see a whole lot of bullpen depth/upside for middle innings, making Aardsma an intriguing risk to take

Danys Baez (34) - minor league deal with a Mexican AAA squad; sorry, it's hard to envision any other scenario for this guy

Jason Isringhausen (39) - major league deal with LAA @ 1 yr/$1.5m; Izzy's threatened not to take another minor league deal, and I think his performance last year earns him a big-league spot, with Anaheim making sense as they replace Andrew Romine with him

Tony Pena (30) - minor league deal with CHW; they paid Pena last year and have some depth concerns this year, so at a discount price it may be worth seeing if he can bounce back from injury

Michael Wuertz (33) - minor league deal with MIN, giving the Minnesota native a place to rebound and possibly fill an important need

Left-handed relievers

Mike Gonzalez (34) - major league deal with TEX @ 1 yr/$2.4m; he would be the finishing touches to yet another Texas team primed for a return to the World Series, easily worth a DFA of Brandon Snyder or Cody Eppley

Damaso Marte (37) - minor league deal with KC; fearing (or knowing) Jose Mijares won't succeed may convince the Royals to take a flyer on this oft-injured southpaw